Activision demands SBMM Warzone site shuts down Pexels, @Sora Shimazaki \/ Activision \/ SBMMWarzoneActivision has demanded the shut down of SBMM Warzone, a site popular for tracking skill levels in Call of Duty: Warzone lobbies, citing API usage. The site announced a legal team gave them until Monday to comply, but they\u2019ve not confirmed that it has been closed. Skill-based matchmaking has been a longstanding point of discussion in Warzone. The popular battle royale lacks a legitimate ranked mode but nebulously seems to enact some degree of SBMM to maintain skill levels in players\u2019 lobbies. As the game\u2019s competitors and fans sought to understand the system, the SBMM Warzone site became a beloved resource. For any public account, the website allowed players to check the skill level of each lobby they played in, ranking lobbies from Bronze to Diamond based on K\/D (kill-death) ratios. To do so, SBMMWarzone used Activision\u2019s API (Application Programming Interface) to source every lobby\u2019s game records. That usage is limited to Activision partners and, following multiple requests, the developers have denied the site\u2019s attempts and told them to shut down by Monday or face legal consequences. Activision\u2019s lawyers reached out and asked us to shut down https:\/\/t.co\/aX094FtqB8. According to their ToS, we can\u2019t use their API. We\u2019ve tried to reach them multiple times to become Partners, now is our last shot. Anyone working at #Activision, please reach out [1\/7] \u2b07\ufe0f pic.twitter.com\/EBFNSee2R7 \u2014 Warzone Meta (@WZStatsGG) March 26, 2021 In a thread from SBMM Warzone\u2019s official Twitter account, the small team reported that \u201cActivision\u2019s lawyers reached out and asked us to shut down sbmmwarzone.com.\u201d The developers \u201cwant to guarantee their players\u2019 privacy\u201d and limit API usage to partners (as per their Terms of Service). This apparently comes after SBMM Warzone \u201ctried to reach [Activision] multiple times\u201d with partnership requests. In face of being unable to reach the developers and legitimize their service, Activision appears to have reached out themselves \u2014 but with threats of legal consequences. At the moment, the site seems willing to shut down if need be, but would much prefer to open up a dialogue with the developers so that a partnership can be agreed upon. Considering the reactions to this news, it\u2019s clear that the community wants SBMM Warzone to become partnered. While initially controversial, the lobby-tracking website has become a useful resource for both the casual and competitive Warzone scenes. Some fans use it to discredit high-kill performances from big streamers, but most agree that the added transparency is valuable. By all accounts, this shutdown is disappointing for the battle royale\u2019s fans. The site\u2019s growth had reached a point where they were tracking lobbies for entire tournaments, like the Toronto Ultra $100K Trios kill race, lending another layer of nuance to the competitive scene. SBMM Warzone officially shuts down On Monday, March 29, SBMM Warzone revealed that they have met Activision\u2019s demands and shut down the website. That said, they\u2019re still hopeful they can reach an agreement with Activision \u201cto provide you with the stats you love.\u201d We\u2019ve met @Activision\u2019s demand and have shut down our website. Your Warzone stats are no longer available. We still believe we can reach an agreement with Activision to provide you with the stats you love. Hey @Activision, let\u2019s partner up.https:\/\/t.co\/FRyI9DJwRq \u2014 Warzone Meta (@WZStatsGG) March 29, 2021 Now, SBMM Warzone and the site\u2019s fans are hoping that Activision will discuss a partnership opportunity \u2014 with numbers of people showing support online. We will update this piece when more news becomes available, but things currently look grim for the future of one of Verdansk\u2019s more valuable community-founded resources.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Activision demands SBMM Warzone site shuts down Pexels, @Sora Shimazaki \/ Activision \/ SBMMWarzoneActivision has demanded the shut down of SBMM Warzone, a site popular for tracking skill levels in Call of Duty: Warzone lobbies, citing API usage. The site announced a legal team gave them until Monday to comply, but they\u2019ve not confirmed that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}